Stuart adopts budget, property tax rate

The Stuart City Commission on Monday passed a property-tax rate of $4.55 per $1,000 of assessed property value.

The city budget also includes a predicted decrease in resident's property values of 4 percent. That decrease will offset a slight increase in the tax rate so homeowners will pay about the same amount of property taxes in 2013 as they did this year.

The following list represents the 2013 tax bills for residents above, below and at the median Stuart home value of $150,000.

Home Value and 2013 Property Tax:

$90,000, $4,097

$150,000, $6,499

$500,000, $22,762

STUART — Eight months of budget planning came to an anticlimactic end Monday, when the city commission adopted the 2012-13 budget quickly with no comments from the public.

The $19,852,517 budget is slightly less than the current one of $20,042,282. The new budget year begins Oct. 1 and ends next Sept. 30.

The 2013 budget includes the property-tax rate of $4.55 per $1,000 of assessed value. Although that's a slight increase from the 2012 rate of $4.33, a decline in property values will hold homeowners' tax bills steady.

"It's equal to the rollback rate, which generates the same amount of money we're receiving this year," City Manager Paul Nicoletti said at the meeting.

He and the commissioners thanked staff for the months they spent planning to manage the city on a shrinking budget.

"This has been a really difficult year," Nicoletti said. "We knew that if we didn't start this early, it would be even more difficult."

The city's tax collections have been shrinking since 2006, when taxes collected reached $10,390,823. Property values from the mid 1990s through the mid 2000s climbed every year. The biggest jump came in 2007, when they increased 26 percent. The fall started in 2009, with a 9 percent drop in value. Property values declined 11 percent in each of the next two years, 7 percent in 2012, and are expected to decrease another 4 percent next year.

City officials in 2013 expect to collect $6,842,759 in taxes, about the same as this year's collections.

During the regular meeting following the 10-minute budget hearing, the commissioners expressed concern over protecting their tax revenues by opposing Florida's constitutional Amendment 4. Voters will decide on the amendment during the Nov. 6 general election. The controversial amendment would reduce taxes mostly for first-time homebuyers, snowbirds and landlords.

Nicoletti pointed out that the amendment has the support of the Stuart/Martin County Chamber of Commerce. Stuart Commissioner Jeffrey Krauskopf, who recently attended a meeting of the Florida League of Cities, said the group is urging cities statewide to oppose the measure.

"The city will suffer as a result of Amendment 4 because of a lack of tax revenue," he said.

Fellow commissioners agreed to discuss the issue further at an upcoming meeting. The next commission meeting will be Oct. 8.

In other business

Less than a year after opening Treasure Coast Seawinds Funeral Home & Crematory on Monterey Road Extension, owner Mark McDonald of Palm City is planning to more than triple the size of the building to 9,100 square feet. The Stuart City Commission on Monday approved the expansion, which is on a former landfill McDonald leases from the city.

"Business has been very good ," McDonald said. "We've been very well received in the community."

Also at the meeting, Commissioner Jeffrey Krauskopf suggested the city consider hiring a corporate headhunter to attract large employers to the city.

"I'd like an experienced guy who'd work for Stuart to bring in major employers," he said.